The Glitch
by YtseJam2012
Summary: Lucas is an average Middle School student. His daily routine is ordinary and rarely tempered with. But when he befriends the new girl in school who turns out to be a Glitch, Lucas's life gets turned upside down. (Now Editing is Done. I just changed the way Nick is presented.)
1. Chapter 1

The Glitch

A Wreck it Ralph Fanfiction

By Scothanial Karrasch

On a cool fall morning, Lucas took a step out of his house and breathed in the cool fresh air. Almost all of the leaves had fallen from the tree in his front lawn. He shivered and stepped back inside for his orange sweater.

"Don't forget your lunch, sweetie," his mom called from inside the house. Lucas ran back inside to get the brown paper bag in his mom's hand, hopped up to kiss her cheek, and scurried out the door to catch the oncoming bus. As he passed the seats of the bus, he looked for an empty seat. Almost all of the ones in the front half were taken, but he found a nice cozy spot near the back.

Lucas stared at the red leaves on the trees that whizzed by. Like the tree in his front lawn, most of the leaves had fallen off. Lucas liked looking at the trees. They were different every day. When school started, the leaves were still nice and green from summer, but around fall they turned colors. Getting closer to winter, they fell off, leaving the tree limbs bare. It's a wonder the trees don't shiver; maybe they do, just when we aren't looking. Then, in spring, buds start to appear on the trees. From the buds come pretty flowers that, by summer, will turn into leaves that fall in autumn and the cycle starts all over again.

Before long, the bus arrived at the school and Lucas, along with all the other people in Spring Garden Middle School, exited the bus to start their day of schooling. Lucas put his lunch in his locker and got his books. Before class actually started, everyone had to go to Homeroom. There, Lucas sat near the back doodling in his sketchbook. He didn't really consider himself an artist; he thought of it more as a hobby than a profession.

The teacher roll-called, checking the students who were present and making note of any student absent. Everyone except for Dylan was present. It didn't surprise Lucas. Dylan barely showed up on time. Other than that, everything in school was normal. He was always on time to class, took notes that were on the board, listened when the teacher talked, doodled when he had time, ate lunch -the peanut butter and jelly sandwich his mom made-, jogged in gym, and then went home to take a shower. His mom always asked him how his day was to which he always replied "good." There was nothing to complain about, nothing too interesting to tell; just a normal day. But things were about to change with the arrival of the new girl in school.

His day started like normal. He stepped outside, shivered, got his sweater. A few more leaves were off the tree. He stared out the window until he got to school, put his packed lunch into his locker, went to Homeroom and sat down at his seat. He was in the middle of a drawing when he heard the teacher announce the new kid.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a new student at Spring Garden." Lucas looked up. The teacher had a wide smile on her face to welcome the new student, but the new student barely smiled and blushed like crazy. "Tell everybody your name, sweetie."

She shyly squeaked out, "Vanellope." Her fingers played with the string on her light-green hooded sweater. Her pony tail swung back and forth as she swayed on the spot.

The teacher didn't hear her correctly and announced, "Welcome Penelope. We have an empty seat over there. Welcome to the school." She meandered over to the empty seat and set her books on the desk. Her seat was two seats up and two seats to the right of Lucas. If Lucas was a Knight on a chess board, he could have moved to the seat right next to her, but Taylor sat in that seat.

Taylor, the class mean girl, looked over Vanellope, intent to catch her on something abnormal. Apparently, everything about Vanellope retracted Taylor; from her too bright sweater to her mismatched striped leggings, and everything in between. She had various candy-shaped clips in her hair.

"Hey, Penelope. Nice hair. It looks like you haven't washed it in a while. You have candy all over it." The girls who overheard her comment laughed along with Taylor. Much to Taylor's pleasure, Vanellope blushed and clutched at her hair.

"No! They're clips. See? They come right out." She took a clip out of her hair and held it out for Taylor to see.

Taylor recoiled, "Ew, no! I don't want any of your hair infested candies." The girls laughed even more which earned Taylor a deeper blush from Vanellope.

Vanellope wasn't going to take this anymore, "Shut up! At least I have a chest!" The girls were awed. Taylor covered up her flat chest with crossed arms. Lucas chuckled. He never saw someone stand up to Taylor like that. The new girl had guts.

The bell rang for class to start. Taylor leaned over threateningly and hissed, "Don't think this is over, Twerp!" At this point, everyone gathered their stuff and left for class. Vanellope and Lucas were the last students out. As they stood up to leave, Lucas got a clear look of Vanellope.

Lucas wanted to say something, anything, to her. "Hey, don't pay attention to those girls. Your candy pins are cute." She said thanks but it didn't feel like there was any thanks in it at all. He tried to introduce himself, "I'm Lucas," but Vanellope left, covering a hand over her face to hide her blush. She was clearly troubled by the altercation on her first day. As Vanellope scurried out the door, Lucas thought he saw her flash light blue.

Lucas wanted to see her again. Something about her fascinated him. The next time he would get to see her was in lunch. Lucas had his own group of friends that he enjoyed sitting with. Matt was in the middle of a very enthusiastic story when Lucas noticed Vanellope taking her tray to an empty table. She sat down and tried to eat her lunch quickly so that she could leave early. Lucas couldn't help but feel sad for this lonely girl. If only she could make friends as quickly as Matt did. Everyone loved Matt; he's a likable person. But, with Vanellope, making friends was going to be harder.

The rest of the day was relatively normal. When his mom asked him how his day was, he had an actual answer.

"There's a new girl in school."

"Really? Is she cute?"

"Mom." Lucas rolled his eyes, and then blushed. "Well, yeah. She is. She's really short and looks different. Her socks are mismatched and she has candy pins in her hair."

His mom smiled. "She sounds interesting."

Lucas nodded. "Yeah, I think so too." Then Lucas remembered the flash. "There's something else though. I thought I saw her flash."

"What do you mean?" Mom asked.

"Well, as she was walking out the door, it looked like she flashed light-blue, and it looked like she turned into pixels." He shook his head. "I don't know. That's just what I saw."


	2. Chapter 2

The next day started poorly. Lucas couldn't sleep well that night. The girl invaded his mind and wouldn't leave. Lucas remembered everything about her from her black hair with the candy pins to the light-green hooded sweater and the mismatched leggings that went all the way up to her Reese's brown skirt. And the flash; what could that flash have been?

Lucas stepped out into the bitter air wearing his usual orange sweater. The girl was still in his mind like that top ten radio hit that's so catchy. As the bus passed the trees Lucas liked to stare at, he counted all the leaves that were still on the branches; and out of all the trees he saw, only 15 leaves remained. Winter was coming upon them.

After getting his books from his locker, he headed toward homeroom. Before he walked through the door, he noticed something going on in the hall. Vanellope and Taylor had each other's shirts in their fists. Vanellope's books and papers were scattered all over the floor. She was yelling for Taylor to let go of her, and then she flashed and was out of Taylor's grip and on the floor. Due to the sudden change in balance, Taylor hit the floor with a thud.

"What kind of freak are you?!" Taylor quickly got to her feet and scurried away with the rest of the girls, leaving the tear-streaked Vanellope in the pile of her own papers. She flashed every time she let out a sob.

Lucas walked over to the scene and started cleaning up the mess. He shuffled papers into a pile and picked them up. Vanellope wiped her nose on her sleeve, "Why are you helping me?"

"Because that's what I do. I help people." He continued to pick up papers.

"Did you see what happened? What I did?" She was referring to her flashing.

"All I saw was a young girl getting bullied. And there's no need for that." Vanellope stopped crying. She liked that Lucas went out of his way to help her. He wasn't even bothered by her flash. "Come on, get your books; I'll walk with you to Homeroom."

Vanellope nodded and they headed back to homeroom together. Instead of sitting next to Taylor, Vanellope decided to sit in the seat right next to Lucas. She wanted to be as far away from those girls as possible.

Once Lucas and Vanellope were settled in, she explained how she and Taylor got into a fight. "I was just passing by, minding my own business, when Taylor bumped into me and knocked me down. She yelled at me like it was my fault. And when I tried to say that it was her fault, she called me a liar and then… stuff happened." Her cheeks grew red again.

Lucas shook his head, "It's not right for her to pick on you."

"Yeah," Vanellope pushed strands of hair out of her face and behind her ear. "The worst part was when she called me a freak. You saw what happened, right?"

Lucas wanted to be kind and pretend that he didn't see the flash, but he didn't want to lie to her. "Yes, I saw it."

Lucas was curious; maybe if he asked nicely, she would tell him? "What was it?"

Vanellope pushed a finger to his lips. "No, not here." She gave a worried glance toward Taylor. "I'll… I'll tell you later. Can you meet me outside after school? We can walk to the park together."

Lucas nodded. "Sure. The park sounds nice."

The bell rang for class to start. Vanellope got up to leave, turned toward Lucas and whispered, "After school, don't forget." Then she was gone quicker than the wind. The rest of the school day was painfully long. The anticipation of meeting Vanellope after school made it hard to concentrate on anything else. He didn't see Vanellope at lunch; there were three different lunch schedules: Some students either have first, second, or third lunch every day while others alternate between first and third lunch. That must have been the reason for Vanellope's absence.

Lucas made sure he finished his lunch early. He wanted to get to the office phone to call his mom to tell her that he was going to the park after school. His mom didn't mind if he was late getting home as long as he called to tell her why.

Last period dragged on the most. There were algebra questions on the board to do, but Lucas was more worried about the minute hand inching its way ever closer to 2:45. As soon as the bell rang, Lucas leaped out of his chair and hurried to his locker. He put the books he needed in his backpack, swung it over his shoulder, and proceeded to the main entrance to meet Vanellope.

Lucas exited school earlier than anyone else so that he wouldn't miss Vanellope. As the crowd of people started to flood out, he scanned the many faces to find a hint of Vanellope's candy pins. Finally, he saw the light-green sweater poking its way through the crowd.

"Come on. Let's get going," Vanellope took Lucas by the hand and dragged him until they were away from the crowd. Once they started walking together towards the park, Vanellope explained her situation.

"Sorry I pulled you away like that; I just wanted to get away from that crowd of people."

Lucas nodded, "I understand. I don't care much to be in crowds either."

A puff of vapor escaped from Vanellope's mouth and she shivered, "Ugh. When did it get so cold?" She folded her arms over her chest to keep the heat inside.

"Well, it is practically winter now." Lucas was more tolerant of the cold. He had lived here for most of his life. Vanellope however was new to this brisk cold. She shivered so hard that she flashed again and pixilated.

Lucas decided now was the best time to bring up the subject. "What's the flash?"

"Do you promise you won't think I'm crazy?"

"The whole world is crazy. Come on, you can tell me."

She inhaled a deep, chilled breath, "The truth is, I'm a program from a video game." Lucas listened intently. He wasn't prone to gullibility, but he also believed Vanellope was telling him the truth.

Seeing Lucas's eyes gave Vanellope confidence to continue, "I am actually a character for an arcade game called Sugar Rush."

"Oh yeah!" Lucas exclaimed. "I've played that before. It's a little too pink for me. I've never seen you in it."

"That's because I'm not supposed to be in it." She took another deep breath before saying, "I'm a glitch." She flashed blue again.

"So that's what the flash is? You're glitching?"

She nodded, "It only really happens when I get emotional or scared or angry, like when I was fighting with Taylor and I glitched out of her grip. It's a positional glitch."

Lucas was intent on finding out more about her. "So, if you're a program, how did you end up out here?"

Vanellope shook her head, "I don't even remember how. I think I was running away from the other programs in the game. They torment me because I'm a glitch." Lucas thought about Taylor and the gang picking on Vanellope. It must be hard to leave the game running from bullies only to run back into them in the real world.

"So, I was running and my heart was racing and I guess I glitched out of the game into the real world." She looked around, and then shivered. "It's a lot colder in the real world."

"Do you ever want to go back?" Lucas asked.

"No! Yes? I don't know." Her head wilted. "There are some things I will miss about the game. I've always wanted to be a racer, but I can't race because I'm a glitch. I could go back if I really wanted to, but it's so… confined. I only live in that tiny box. But out here, the world is vast… and expansive… and real. I want to see it all." Her eyes sparkled as she looked up at the sky. "It's so blue up there."

"We have something in common then," Lucas said.

"What do you mean?"

"For the past couple of years I've felt stuck in the same stupid routine. Wake up, shower, go to school, come home, do homework, go to sleep only to do it all again over and over. But after I'm done with all of this, I'm going to travel." Lucas spread his wings out like an airplane, "I'm going to learn how to fly a plane and then fly to wherever I want to go and see whatever I want to see."

Vanellope smiled at Lucas, "Sounds like a good dream. Do you think you could use a co-pilot?"

Lucas smiled back at Vanellope, "I think so."

When they reached the park, their talk grew less serious. They laughed and had fun taking turns pushing each other on the swing. They tried the see-saw but the weight was too uneven to do anything, so they left it. There was a merry-go-round that Vanellope sat on while Lucas spun it in circles. After it got to a good speed, he hopped on and gripped the bar for dear life. Lucas flew off and landed on the ground. Vanellope landed on top of him; both of them were too dizzy to walk.

Before long the sun started to go down; the sky went from light blue to a range of red, orange, and darker blue. Lucas checked his watch, "That's unbelievable! It's only 5:30! Well, we should be getting home. Do you want me to take you to your place first?"

Vanellope bit her lip and shuffled her feet as she looked up at Lucas. "Um, no. Could I come home with you?" Lucas looked down into her giant, shining eyes. She looked so adorable, how could he possibly say no.

"Sure. My house is not too far away from here. Come on." Vanellope followed Lucas all the way to his home.


	3. Chapter 3

In the town of Spring Garden, everything was connected to the main road. Branching from the main road, the school became the basic center of the town. A couple of blocks north, the road branched off again to a wide open grassy area. That's where the park was. Back on the main road, a couple of blocks south from the school sat a grocery shop. Before the shop, another road branched off to an area of houses. That's where Lucas's house was.

By the time Lucas and Vanellope turned off of the main road, the sun had nearly set.

"Come on!" Lucas said, "Mom wants me back before sundown!" Lucas and Vanellope broke into a sprint. The cool air rushing at Vanellope's face caused streams of tears; she had to squint just to be able to see where Lucas was running.

They turned onto Lucas's block and slowed down when they got to his yard. In the driveway sat one car. It was a Toyota that belonged to Lucas's Mom. In the spring and summer, a bed of colorful flowers would surround the perimeter of the house, but in fall going into winter; it became a home for cold dirt.

Lucas opened the door for Vanellope to step in. After a "thanks" from Vanellope, Lucas followed her in and shut the door behind them, sealing the rest of the house from the crisp cold air outside. Lucas put his orange sweater on the hook by the door, but Vanellope kept her light-green hooded sweater on.

"Welcome home sweetie. Oh! Who's your friend?" Lucas's mom came into the hallway wearing an apron over her evening dress and an oven mitt covering her right hand. She was working on dinner in the kitchen.

"Mom, this is Vanellope. Vanellope, this is my mom."

Vanellope waved. "Hi, Ms. Lucas"

Lucas's mom giggled, "Oh please, just call me mom. Dinner is in the oven, I'm guessing Vanellope will be staying for dinner?" Lucas nodded in confirmation. "I'll set another plate. Go wash up, kids."

Lucas tugged on Vanellope's shoulder, "Come on, I'll give you the tour." Lucas took Vanellope around the house. The front door led into the main hallway. To the left there was an entrance to the living room; it had a fireplace, a TV that only had news and weather channels (The living room TV was not hooked up to the cable,) a reading chair and a love seat. The living room was attached to the dining room where a table was set with two settings and waiting for a third setting. The dining room and the main hall both connected to the kitchen.

To the right of the front door was another door that led into the garage. The hallway connected to the second floor by a carpeted staircase. At the top of the stairs, the second floor hallway went to the left. Directly to the right was Lucas's mom's bedroom which was the master bedroom. Like the main road that branched into different vein roads, the second floor hallway veined into different rooms by a series of doors. The only door on the left side was the bathroom. It consisted of a sink, a toilet, and a shower. Lucas's mom made sure that it was sparkly clean every day. Mom often had her friends over for reading groups or to test out a new gourmet recipe she had found.

The door at the end of the hallway was a closet that contained heavy jackets that would soon be brought out for winter, a broom, and a vacuum cleaner. The first door on the right was the guest bedroom. It had a fresh bed and an empty drawer. On the right side of the hall between the guest room and the closet was Lucas's room. There was a comfy bed with puffy dark blue sheets; a TV; video game system; a shelf with books, magazines, DVDs, and CDs and games; and a laptop computer sitting on a desk. His walls were painted a brighter shade of the dark bed sheets.

"Your room is so cool." Vanellope tried to absorb everything.

"We can play a game or something in here later." Lucas closed the door and led Vanellope to the bathroom where they washed their faces and hands in preparation for supper. Vanellope liked the scent of the hand soap.

Downstairs, a steaming dinner of pot roast with a side of salted green beans and bread rolls was set in the middle of the table surrounded by three table settings. One setting was placed at the head of the table while the other two were placed next to each other on one side for Lucas and Vanellope.

The atmosphere was filled with chit chat. Lucas and Vanellope talked about how much fun they had at the park and Lucas's mom talked about her work. Vanellope was tentative about the pot roast but took a polite bite and discovered that she liked it.

"It's so much better than cafeteria food," she commented.

Lucas started stacking plates to take to the sink when his mom stopped him, "You don't need to do that. Go have fun with your friend; I'll do the dishes."

"Thanks mom." Lucas took Vanellope by the hand and led her upstairs.

Lucas took Vanellope up to his room where they picked out a video game to play. While Lucas was setting up the system, Vanellope was surfing through the games on his shelf. She gasped and glitched from excitement as she took a game off the shelf to show Lucas.

"I met Mario once!" Vanellope exclaimed. "It was so cool. He made a special appearance at our arcade for the 30th anniversary of Donkey Kong. Princess Peach was there too."

Lucas smiled, "So video game characters can meet characters from other games?"

Vanellope nodded, "Oh, yeah. It's very common nowadays. Since the creation of wifi, programs can be transported easily from game to game. Before that, programs only knew the programs in their own games." She found a game she liked and pulled it off the shelf, "This one looks interesting. Put this in."

Vanellope handed him a multiplayer fighter pilot game. The concept was simple. The player earns points by shooting down enemy planes and the player with the most points win. The challenge is that the enemy planes fight back.

"Okay," Lucas handed Vanellope a controller, "I'm the red plane and you're the blue plane. That way we don't accidentally shoot ourselves. Everyone else is gray."

"I think I got it. X is gas, O is brake, triangle is gun, and square is missile, right?"

"Yep, and the control-stick is to move your plane." The game started. In the first round Lucas shot down 20 enemy bogies, but Vanellope struggled to get even five.

"Get back here! No, not that way! Grrr!" Vanellope's frustration caused her to glitch and she threw the controller down on the bed.

"Haven't you ever played a game before?"

"No, I'm a program; I'm not supposed to know how to play the game."

She noticed the cord that connected the controller to the console. As she looked closer into the controller, she saw the computer chips inside. She stared at the controller, deep in thought.

"I think I can…" Then in a flash of blue light, she disappeared into the controller. The blue light raced from the controller, up the cord, and into the console.

"Vanellope? Vanellope?!" Lucas whirled around, looking for her. Then he heard a voice coming from the TV.

"I'm in here you doof! Look at the screen." Sure enough, Vanellope was waving her hand from the cockpit of the blue plane.

Lucas was amazed, "How did you do that?!"

"I just zapped myself in here and took the place of the character I was playing."

Vanellope pulled back on the lever between her legs causing the plane to shoot upwards. Then she pushed the lever left sending the plane went into a controlled spin. She finally leveled out the plane, laughing out loud.

"This is so much easier than using the controller!"

Lucas laughed as well, but then noticed that a fighter plane was heading right towards her with a missile ready to fire. "Look out!"

Vanellope turned to see the oncoming plane, but it was too late; she was blasted out of the sky. Just then, the flash of blue light raced back toward the controller. A spark flew out of it and Vanellope re-materialized onto the bed. Her hair was blown back.

"Woah! That was intense!"

"How did you do that? I thought you died?"

"Programs don't really die," she explained simply.

"What are you talking about? They die in games all the time."

"Yeah, but when you restart the game, don't they go back to normal? Programs can't die; technically, they aren't even real. They're just numbers. They're just…" Then she realized that she was talking about herself. "I'm… just some code." A tear escaped and rolled down her cheek.

"Hey," Lucas placed a hand on Vanellope's shoulder. "You are more real than most of the people I've met on this Earth. You are the most real girl I ever met."

With a flashing glitch, Vanellope sobbed and threw herself into Lucas's arms. After a moment of a sympathetic embrace, Vanellope sat back on the bed and smiled. "Let's play another game," she said, "I want to see what else I can do."

The rest of the night, Vanellope hopped into more games. She took the place of a racer, replaced an explorer, and even took the place of Mario in a game. She even helped Lucas get past a nearly impossible level.

"I was stuck on that for two years. It looked easy when you did it. How did you do that?"

"It's easier when you're actually in the game," she replied. After she got past that level for Lucas, she returned to the bed and collapsed; the bed sheets rippled. "I think that's it for today. I'm getting tired out."

"Yeah," Lucas put the game system away and sat back on the bed. "It's getting pretty late." He looked over at Vanellope. Her eyes were closed; it looked like she was almost asleep. "You look like you're tired." She nodded serenely. "My mom can take you home if you'd like."

She shook her head, "I want to stay here with you." She held her arms out like a child calling for her mother. Lucas considered the option. If she slept in the guest bedroom, his mom would let her sleep over.

Lucas relinquished, "Alright. I'll make up the guest bed. Go brush your teeth while I'm doing that."

The tired Vanellope meandered over to the bathroom and used a fresh toothbrush Lucas set out for her. Meanwhile, Lucas took the bedding in his hands and threw them up in the air. The sheets crested in the air and rested flat on the mattress below. Satisfied with his work, he called Vanellope. She ran into the room and dived onto the bed; twisting the sheets on the bed Lucas just made.

"Are you comfortable?" Lucas asked sarcastically.

Vanellope nodded and hugged the pillow, "Yes, very. Thank you."

Lucas smiled at her. She was just too darn cute. "Do you want me to call your mom to let her know you're spending the night?"

She paused, "No. You don't have to do that. She doesn't mind me sleeping over with friends."

"Okay," Lucas said. "Well, I set my alarm clock early enough so that both of us can get ready for school in the morning, okay?" She nodded again and snuggled into the bed-sheets. "Goodnight Vanellope," he whispered turning towards the doorway.

Vanellope's reply was barely audible but unmistakable, "Night, brother."

Lucas stopped at the door as though the words paralyzed him, and took one last look at the resting Vanellope, "Goodnight… sis." He turned off the light and left the room.

The words looped in his mind as he lay in bed. "Night, brother." She really thinks of me as her brother? The thought played around in his mind until he fell soundly asleep.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Lucas looked through hazy eyes. When he checked his clock for the time, the digital numbers read 1:35 A.M. As Lucas searched for an answer to what caused him to wake up so early, he saw a flash of blue light coming from the hallway. He went into the hallway to find Vanellope shivering and glitching in her sleep. Little moans escaped her mouth; she sounded like she was in pain.

"Vanellope? Vanellope, wake up!" Lucas shook her shoulder violently. She woke up with a gasp and jolted up right, panting wildly.

"Oh man!" she exclaimed quietly. Sweat trickled down her forehead. Lucas rubbed her back, trying to calm her down. When Lucas was little, whenever he had a nightmare, his mom would console him by rubbing his back. He always liked it, so he figured it would work on Vanellope too.

"It was such a bad dream." She shook her head, trying to shake away the nightmare.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Lucas asked.

Vanellope arched her back to stretch and then tiredly hunched over. Lucas continued his massage; pushing his palms forcefully but carefully into her back.

"It felt so real. I was back in Sugar Rush working on the go-kart I made to race in the competition when the other racers ran in my direction in a panic. They were frantic, yelling about the game crashing all around them. They ran towards the program escape route and I decided to follow them. But once I got to the escape chamber, something held me back. There was a barrier that I couldn't get past no matter how hard I tried. And the world was crumbling all around me! I couldn't escape and…" She shuddered. "That's when you woke me up."

Lucas stopped massaging her back to rub his foggy eyes. With a sigh he said, "Let's try to get some sleep. We still have four and a half hours before we have to wake up." Lucas patted the spot next to him in bed; Vanellope obediently lay down and closed her eyes.

The rest of the night passed quietly. Lucas groggily woke up to the sound of his alarm clock. Vanellope was still asleep so he shook her shoulder to wake her up. This time, she opened one eye to look at Lucas, smiled, and stretched.

Lucas and Vanellope took turns taking shower but they brushed their teeth together, ate breakfast together, and waited outside for the bus together. Once they got on the bus, they both sat in the empty seat near the back. Instead of blankly staring at the trees that whizzed by, Lucas spent the ride talking to Vanellope. To the ordinary observer, they would say Lucas was still stuck in his usual routine; but to Lucas, his life was completely changed because now he had someone to share it with.

The first time Lucas and Vanellope spent apart since the afternoon before was the time it took for Vanellope to get to her locker. After that, they sat in Homeroom together.

Vanellope pried away a folder that was tucked underneath Lucas's arm. "Soooo, what's in here?" She opened it and looked inside before he could stop her; not that he wanted to.

"That's my drawing folder. I just sketch, nothing too fancy." He shrugged.

However, Vanellope was thoroughly impressed as she flipped through the pages of graphite smeared drawing paper. The sketches consisted of character drawings; ones he had seen from movies and some of his own creation. Some of the sketches were environmental. One was the classroom where he had English first period. Another one was an outdoor setting. There was a tree that had lost its leaves; it was on an overlook. The only thing separating everything from the 50 foot drop below was a sturdy dense wooden fence. In the background was a hilly mountain range.

"Wow, these are really good, Lucas. You've got talent."

Lucas blushed and smiled, "Thanks."

After Homeroom, Lucas and Vanellope separated until lunch period. They were two years apart and had no classes together. Throughout the day, Lucas felt as though part of him was missing. Once fourth period ended, he headed directly for the cafeteria. As he entered the lunchroom, his heart leaped. Vanellope was standing in the middle of the cafeteria scanning the area for her brother. Once she spotted him, she ran toward him.

They exchanged greetings, got into the lunch line, and talked about the past four periods and what they had done.

"Gym was horrible," Vanellope started. "I have the same class as Taylor. Blegh. Anyway, we were in the changing area and she teased me about my 'teleportation' as she and her minions called it. Then they pushed me to the wall, wanting to see if I would 'teleport' through it. Of course, my heart was pounding and I didn't want to hit the wall, so I glitched. I did go through. The problem is, on the other side was the boy's locker room."

"Oh man," Lucas shook his head. "I really wish Taylor wouldn't torture you so much."

Vanellope shrugged, "It really wasn't that bad. The guys basically just let me run out of the room with my tail between my legs. I got out of there before I could get in any trouble."

"How was your second block class?" he asked.

"Computer Science is really interesting. After being in a computer for my entire life, it's interesting to see what goes on outside of it. I met this guy named Nick. He's really smart and helps me work the computer."

"Oh yeah," Lucas said, "I know Nick. He's developed a few of his own programs. It's ridiculous." He meant it as a compliment.

They waited in line until they got their trays and made their way to Lucas's table. He introduced Vanellope to the rest of the group. Being the friendly accepting group they were, they gracious let Vanellope sit down with them. She enjoyed it; she thought Matt was hilarious and a good story teller. Lucas agreed with her. Matt was the life of the table. After lunch, Lucas and Vanellope went their separate ways again.

Vanellope and Lucas walked home from school that day. They enjoyed walking and talking together. Lucas's Mom wasn't surprised to see Vanellope back again. She figured she'd be coming over more often. After Lucas took off his sweater, they went up to his room and he let Vanellope use his computer.

Vanellope sat at the desk with the mouse in her hand. She stared as she read through pages of internet sites. "Wow! The internet has everything! There's so much information." Vanellope had never seen a computer before. The format was much different than for a video game system. A small screen popped up and blocked her view. "Why does it keep doing this?"

Lucas waved this off as if it were nothing. "Oh, I think my computer might have a virus. I'm getting it checked out sometime this week, but for now, it's stuck like that."

"Hmm, that can get annoying." She clicked the _x_ at the right corner of the pop-up box. A minute later, the box popped up again. "Come on!" She shook her head. Looking around, she noticed the wire that connected the computer to the internet. "Wait, why am I doing this out here?"

"Don't go into my computer. I don't know what the virus could do to you," Lucas warned.

"I'm not going into your computer. I'm just going to go straight to the internet. Watch."

With a flash of light, she passed through the internet router. Lucas waited patiently for her to come back. After a minute, the flash of light sparked back out of the wire.

"Wow! I just toured Rome!" Vanellope was over excited. "Things go so fast in there; I feel like I just saw everything!"

"I'm glad you're learning so much… but maybe you shouldn't glitch into the internet."

Vanellope frowned, "Why not? With this I can see the world at 1000 times the speed."

"Yes, that's great. But there is a lot of bad stuff on the internet too." Lucas's concern could be heard in his voice. It was easy for his computer to contract something, how hard would it be for Vanellope? She cautiously looked at the computer screen; but, wanting more, she pleaded for one last trip inside.

Lucas gave in, "Just one more quick trip, okay? And then you're done." Vanellope nodded excitedly and hopped back into the internet. Lucas waited a minute while she surfed the web. After a moment, the wire sent out red sparks; Vanellope shot out of it like an explosion. She landed on the bed, glitching and quivering.

"Oh no! What did you do? What happened!" Vanellope continued to shake on the bed, glitching with every tremor. Only one word escaped her mouth. "N-Nick."

"Nick!"


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Lucas hopped on his bike with Vanellope clinging onto his back. He raced through the bitter cold, fighting back frozen tears so that he could see where he was going. As soon as he neared Nick's house, he threw down the bike and carried the glitching Vanellope inside. He called out for Nick who came into the hallway with a pair of headphones straddling his neck.

"Lucas, what are you…" He noticed the glitching Vanellope in Lucas's arms. "What's happened to her? Wait, she wouldn't be… she is! She's a program that's animated into the world!"

Lucas didn't even say anything, Nick pieced it together himself.

"That is so amazing! Ha Ha!" His nerdiness showed, but then he soon grew serious. "Oh, and she's in trouble. Ohhhhh. No no no no." He became so frantic, he nearly lost his glasses. "We need to get her to my computer. Stat!"

Lucas carried Vanellope to Nick's room and laid her on the bed. She curled up into a ball, shivering. "Can you help her?"

Nick stared intently at the monitor two inches from his face, not even once looking down at the keys he was pressing on the keyboard. His computer was connected to so many wires they all looked like a tangled mess of vines. "I think I can. Can you tell what happened that caused her to get this bad?"

"She was surfing the web, and she just exploded out of the router and started shaking and glitching."

"Glitching?"

"Yeah, that's when she flashes blue and pixilates. We call it glitching."

"That seems like the proper term for that. But once I get inside her, I can find out what's causing her to glitch so much."

"Get inside her?"

"I need to look at her programming Maybe I can find something that is monumentally irregular that is messing her up."

Lucas turned to Vanellope, "Do you think you can go into Nick's computer? It'll be the last time you ever have to do it."

Vanellope tried hard to sit up, "I think… I can do it."

"Wait!" Nick reached behind the internet modem and unplugged it. "I'm disconnecting access to the internet. We don't want this getting worse."

As Vanellope stood up, her face turned pale, but she pushed on and zapped into Nick's computer. The screen turned black. After a moment, a million bits of code appeared on the screen.

"This is incredible! Her code is so complex! She could almost be real."

"She is real!" Lucas shot. "Just, focus so she can remain real!"

Nick scanned through the code as it whizzed by. His eyes flicked back and forth as fast as lightning. After a minute of patient waiting, Nick spotted the abnormality.

"I found it!"

Lucas rushed over to the computer, "Where? I don't see it."

Nick rolled his eyes. "Of course you wouldn't see it. But this," he highlighted a paragraph of code, "isn't supposed to be here. This is a very common and very deadly virus." The screen refreshed and the virus code got bigger. "I can delete it, but it looks like the virus is connected to something else. Uh oh."

"Uh oh? What uh oh?" Lucas fought to see what the problem was, but everything was foreign to him.

'The code that the virus attached itself to is the code that causes her to glitch which is why she has been glitching so often. If I delete the virus, I have to delete the glitch too."

The glitch was what allowed Vanellope to leave her game and enter the real world. It's what allowed her to travel into his video games, computer, and, unfortunately, attract viruses.

"So, if you delete the glitch…" Lucas didn't want to say it.

Nick finished, "She may not come back to this world."

Lucas teared up. Vanellope was his closest friend, the closest that he could ever call a sister. And in a moment, he would never get the opportunity to talk to her again.

A message appeared on the screen in code. Nick said, "Lucas, it's a message from her. It says, 'Delete the code. I can go back to Sugar Rush and be a program. Without the glitch, the other programs will accept me, but I will never forget the real world. I'll… I'll never forget my brother.'"

Tears streamed down Lucas's face and fell like raindrops onto the floor. "I'll miss you too, sis." He sniffed. After a painful pause, he looked and Nick and said, "Do it."

With a click of a button, the virus, the glitch, and Vanellope vanished from Lucas's life. He felt as though a piece of his heart had disappeared from his chest; deleted like a code in the hands of a programmer.

"You made the right choice, Lucas." Nick said.

He continued to cry, "I know." Lucas took a pause. "Let's get her to the arcade."

Nick loaded Vanellope's code onto an SD card. Together, he and Lucas transported the code to the arcade that housed Sugar Rush. The owner allowed them inside and unlocked the back on the game so that Nick could access it. With the help of a device, Nick was able to get Vanellope's code back into the game.

"Alright. She's in…. Well, test it out, Lucas."

Lucas went to the front of the game where the seat and steering wheel were. As he sat down, he inserted three quarters into the slot and pressed start. At the character selection, Lucas flipped through the different playable characters. Then he saw her. Vanellope Von Schweetz. Everything from her candy hair clips to her lime green sweater, and her Reese's chocolate brown skirt all the way down to her mismatched leggings were just as he remembered her. She stood in a "ready to race" position with a racing helmet tucked under her arm and a pair of goggles supported on her forehead pushing her bangs back. She was smiling; she looked happy.

"I'm going to play for a bit," Lucas said. Nick nodded and left to play another game.

Lucas played through the grand prix. As far as he knew, Vanellope was none the wiser that Lucas was the driver. He raced all the tracks, placed first in all of them, and won the trophy at the end. Somehow, he didn't feel satisfied. So much has happened; yet, what came out of it? Lucas would go back to his humdrum life and Vanellope went back to her game. She would never remember the time they spent together and everything would return to normal. But normal wasn't what Lucas wanted; he wanted a change. Vanellope was his change. She appeared into his life and gave him something to care about.

But all that was just gone now. And that place in Lucas's heart would never be filled up again. As he was about to leave the game, he saw a special message appear on the screen.

"I will never forget our time together, brother." The avatar of Vanellope winked at Lucas.

She did remember! All of this was not for nothing. As long as Vanellope still remembered their time together, it was not lost. Maybe, one day when technology advanced, Vanellope could leave the game again, and she and Lucas could be friends forever.

"Come on, Nick. Let's go." Nick returned to his house and Lucas returned home. As he walked through the door, he heard his mom call out.

"Hello sweetie. Where's your friend?"

"She umm… she had to go. She moved… again."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I know you really liked her. She was really something"

"Yeah," Lucas said more to himself, "She really was."

Lucas went back to his old routine, but it didn't feel like the old routine because he knew that somewhere out there in the world, he had someone he could call his sister.

The End


End file.
